page_title: Victoria International Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Victoria International Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This may be the last picture of United at YYJ - service ended only a week later on January 6, 2019. United Express (Operated by SkyWest) CRJ-200 N423SW landing on runway 27, Victoria International Airport, December 30, 2018.
context_page_description: Victoria International Airport serves Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is 12 nautical miles north northwest of Victoria on the Saanich Peninsula, with the bulk of the airport in North Saanich, and a small portion of the airfield extending into Sidney. The airport is run by the Victoria Airport Authority. YYJ has many nonstop daily flights to Vancouver International Airport, which is a major airport serving many global routes. Additionally, Victoria International has nonstop service to Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and several smaller cities in British Columbia and Yukon. The airport also has seasonal nonstop service to several Mexican resort destinations. Non-stop service between Victoria and the United States will decrease by 50% beginning in September 2019 when Delta Airlines permanently ends its three daily flights, after which only Alaska Airlines will fly the Victoria - Seattle route.
  Victoria International Airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency.
context_section_description: The airport started in 1939 as a grass strip, and was used as a military training airfield. During the early part of WWII (1940 - 1941), the airfield was used as Royal Air Force Station Patricia Bay, for training personnel for basic flying training, preparatory to returning them to the UK.
  In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed as RCAF Aerodrome - Patricia Bay, British Columbia at 48°39′N 123°26′W with a variation of 24 degrees E and elevation of 25 feet (8 m).  The aerodrome was listed with three runways as follows:
  The airport is located beside Patricia Bay, which, due to the prevalence of flying boats at the time, proved to be an excellent location.  The Department of Transport took over the airport in 1948. It was then called Victoria (Patricia Bay) Airport, and many locals still refer to it as the "Pat Bay Airport". Trans-Canada Airlines (later Air Canada) began regular service in 1943.
  The last Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) unit left the airport in 1952. In the late 1980s the RCAF returned to the property when 443 Helicopter Squadron began operating CH-124 Sea King ship-borne anti-submarine helicopters from Victoria International Airport. The RCAF refers to 443 Squadron operations at the airport as the Patricia Bay Heliport.
  In 1959, the airport was renamed the "Victoria International Airport".
  In 1997, as part of a broad scale restructuring of airports across Canada, Transport Canada (formerly the Department of Transport), gave operational control of the airport to the Victoria Airport Authority.
  In 2000, the Victoria Airport Authority began the process of renovating and expanding the terminal to meet passenger needs. In 2002, the new "airside hold room" and the new "arrivals rotunda" were rebuilt. By 2005, the new "departures area" was completed.
  In May 2005, the federal government, which owns the land, announced a reduction in the rent paid by the Victoria Airport Authority. This will save $0.6 million Canadian each year and $12 million CAD over the life of the lease, which is 50 years.
  In September 2018, United Airlines announced that the daily United Express flight from Victoria to San Francisco would permanently end on 7 January 2019, concluding over a decade of daily non-stop service between the two cities.
  In March 2019, Delta Airlines announced that all Delta flights from Victoria to Seattle would permanently end on 2 September 2019, concluding a three year presence by the airline in Victoria and leaving Alaska Airlines as the only airline serving Victoria directly from Seattle or anywhere in the United States. Delta's decision also marked the second airline to leave Victoria in 2019 after United Airlines withdrew service in January 2019.
caption: A United Express CRJ200 at Victoria International Airport a week before service ended
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